She nods and her face is soft, so I know that she’s telling the truth.
“What are you, some kind of nun, then? Sworn to celibacy or something?” I ask carefully. Not sure why I’m probing her. I barely know her, and I don’t really want to get into her personal life, on account of her possibly reciprocating, and I’m not up for that, especially if she ain’t all there.
But she snorts a laugh, setting me at ease more. “No. Just…anyone that meets my mama is going to run. They don’t want me to marry anyone unless they consent to it.”
“Kind of like one of them arranged marriages?”
“Not quite like that, no. But close. I just…I can’t see anyone getting that tight with my folks.”
Well, now I know why she wanted to leave Clarkstown. Can’t say I blame her. But I’m not about to share my reason for leaving. At least, not yet. I still think she’s a little loopy for me. “I’m sure it’ll work out. I mean, don’t your folks want grandbabies?”
“That’s my loophole. But until they get over the fact that their little girl has to have sex in order to make grandbabies, that’s never going to happen.”
I’m getting this girl more and more each minute. “So, you say you wanted to get as far away from that as possible, huh.” I’m flippant.
She chuckles. “Exactly.”
Stupid boy walks back down the hall. He must have gone to the washroom. I figure he took so long because he couldn’t find his dick, but I digress. We’re on a stare-down as he walks past me, and I feel my fist ball up, as my teeth grind together, but Ava touches my arm, and I relax somewhat. As soon as Stupid is back in the classroom, Ava looks at me. “He’s not worth it, Gunner. Just let it go.”
“I am letting it go. And you’re right. He’s not worth it. Last thing I need is for my mama to get word that I got sent to jail for assault in my first semester.”
The teacher calls us back into the classroom.
Ava takes my arm and leads me back towards the classroom with her. “Yeah, better to wait at least until second semester.”
***
“So, how come this one got marked with a big red ‘X’ then?” I ask Ava, as we sit in her dorm room. She’s helping me study my English work, since we’ve both got a quiz coming up next class, and I’m completely lost. Her dormmate is at her boyfriend’s dorm, and she invited me over the second she left. If you ask me, she doesn’t think much of her.
“Because y’all spelled that word wrong.” She says kindly. “I spelled it wrong, too, see?” she says, showing me her paper. And I suddenly feel like maybe I’m not so stupid after all. Ava sure has a way of making me feel like I’m not as stupid as some have made me out to be.
“Well, golly.” I say, smiling.
“And I even sounded it out and everything.” She states. “That teacher’s an…well…y’all know what I mean.”
“I do, darlin’. But he did give us a cool assignment. If it weren’t for that, we might never have met.”
“True.” Her dorm is so tiny, we can only sit on her bed, since she’s only got a lap desk for her laptop computer. She couldn’t fit a desk in here if she tried. It’s like a goddamn cell from county jail back home. And the only reason I know from experience what that looks like is because my mama once asked me when I was just knee high to a grasshopper to come along to sell cupcakes for the church bazaar, and she knew from calling the Sheriff first, that there were no inmates in there at the time…in case you were wondering. “So, what else did you get on the paper?”
I show her and she looks it over. “This isn’t so bad. I think that aside from him giving us cool assignments sometimes, he’s a bit of a hard marker. But let’s get started on studying for this quiz. You want to test me first?”
“Sure. Then I get a chance to review while I test you.”
She nods and we spend about thirty minutes going through the notes that pertain to the quiz. We worked out questions based on the material the teacher gave us in class. When suddenly there is a knock at the door.
“You expecting company?”
A ‘v’ forms between her brows. “No. Anyone paying me a visit would call or text me first.”
“Y’all want me to answer it? In case it’s a serial killer or something?” I’m only half joking.
“I don’t think a serial killer would knock.”
I grin. “True.”
She opens the door and I see the terror in her eyes. “Mama? Daddy? What are y’all doing here?” she tries to act welcoming, but I see that her cheeks turn pink. I rise, suddenly very aware that I’m sitting on her bed, and my instincts tell me to introduce myself, so I stick out my hand for them to shake, removing my Stetson first. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am, sir.” I nod politely.
“Gunner.” Her daddy repeats reluctantly. Her mama doesn’t even say anything. I just get a glare.
